Everyone on this forum has given so much to me, I thought it was about time I gave something back.
A lot of guys have posted about how copywriting can provide a (very) good, location-independent income. I'm a pro copywriter by trade, and did a quick forum search for copywriting--good number of hits in other threads, but no dedicated copywriting datasheet. So I figured I might as well share some insights with you guys--hopefully this datasheet will inspire a couple guys to follow in my footsteps and pursue what can be a very lucrative career. Hope you enjoy...
What is Copywriting?
Think of copywriting as "persuasion in print." Every time you see an ad, product label, website, etc., the product creator is trying to persuade you to take some kind of action. Ultimately, in one way or another, this copy is usually geared toward making a sale somehow, either directly, or by giving the prospect "enough information" (wink, wink) to help them realize they NEED the product, or by getting your email address or contact information so that you can be put on a list to be sold to later. There is the odd case where some companies just want to "raise brand awareness," but a lot of time those people have very broad "sales funnels" (more on this later), and can afford HUGE international marketing campaigns. While it's kind of a![[Image: gay.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/new/gay.gif)
goal, those companies usually have tons of cash, and it's a pretty broad objective, so hey, who am I to refuse?
Why Should I Become a Copywriter?
Because copywriting depends on the power of persuasion, I think a lot of game users and game-aware guys are perfectly suited for it--there's (sadly) not much difference between trying to get a girl to fuck you, and trying to get some fat fuck from Nebraska to shell out $97 on a "comprehensive system" to "get thin quick" in the form of a 80 page ebook.
Also, it pays damned well--while you may take a pay cut until you have some proven results, copywriters who do have proof of their selling ability can charge $3000-5000 a sales letter. The very best can clock in somewhere in the five figures per sales letter, plus royalties per item sold.
Keep in mind, to get to this level, you will have to demonstrate very high conversion rates for high-ticket products in very competitive fields--think the big three wants (health, sex, and money). But if you can get there, you can effectively work 20 hours per month and make mid-six figures before royalties. That's not bad...
Also, it helps if you're a good writer to begin with. Before I got into copywriting, I was a lawyer at a big(ish) firm, and wrote a lot of persuasive (but boring) shit. This shortened my learning curve significantly--if you can write error-free pieces relatively quickly, with good grammar, you'd be a great candidate to strike out on your own as a copywriter.
Why Shouldn't I Become a Copywriter?
If you can't write really well to begin with, you're going to fight an uphill battle. The Warrior Forum Copywriting Section is littered with non-native speakers that make posts like "I want writ good copies--is my sqeze page make benefit for customer?" Of course, they link to some awful squeeze page that has no chance.
Seriously, though, you need to have some basic foundation in:
(1) Writing, and
(2) Persuasion in some form,
and you should be able to learn copywriting.
Who Will Hire Me?
All sorts of companies, from huge multinationals to mom-and-pop businesses, to people with ebooks on Clickbank (notice all of those weird picture ads with sensational headlines that lead to sales letters at the bottoms of web pages? Those sales letters all need to be written by copywriters).
What Kinds of Stuff Will I Be Writing?
Everything from sales letters, to websites, to "white papers," to brochures, to emails, to ads. You'd be surprised at how bad even "big time" businessmen and lawyers are at the nuts-and-bolts of writing, let alone persuading others through the written word.
Now imagine how bad your run-of-the-mill internet marketer is at it.
Usually, most copywriters try to specialize in 1-3 different things, and do those really well, so they can charge more for them. I've found that I'm particularly good at sales letters, and enjoy writing them, so I'm trying to pivot to specialize in those. But I still take on other projects all the time--not only is it paying work, but it breaks up the monotony a little bit.
Keep in mind that if you like to hustle a bit, you can write pretty much whatever you want, and get paid a good amount for it.
How Much Can I Get Paid?
Like I said earlier, experienced copywriters can charge $3000-5000 for a sales letter, no questions asked. Keep in mind, this includes all of the background research, reading/using the product (if it's an info product), making a prep file, thinking about the angles, writing, revising, etc.
It can take a lot of time at the beginning, but over time, especially as you focus on a niche, you can streamline a lot of the prep work, and focus more on writing. As you get better results, your hourly rate skyrockets.
At the start, though, you'll be doing a lot of "hourly rate conversion." This consists of estimating how many hours a project will take, then extrapolating that out times your hourly rate. You may have to lowball a few projects when you're starting out, but I wouldn't recommend starting any lower than $30/hour, and generously allocate your time. Don't be afraid to ask a client how much they've budgeted for a project, either--you'd be surprised at how much some clients will pay for something relatively straightforward.
Once you're making $50/hour and above, you can make a very nice income working just 20 hours a week--at least enough to live on. That leaves more time to game chicks, work on other side hustles, create and promote your own products, etc. And with each project, you're effectively decreasing the "hours" portion of the equation (since you should always bill by the project whenever possible), which "makes" you more time over the long run.
How Do I Learn How to Do It?
There are a few ways you can learn to be a copywriter. The cheapest is probably self-study. Read a bunch of books on the topic, hand-copy sales letters, try making and selling your own products under pen names to prove your sales ability, etc.
Gary Halbert (big-time copywriter--R.I.P.) advocates this method to "learn how to write copy in 30 days or less." Keep in mind that this takes a lot of time out of those 30 days, and a lot of work. But some people have tried it and said it works, so who knows?
I did a good amount of self-study. The six or so books I'd recommend most when getting started are:
The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman
The Ultimate Sales Letter, by Dan Kennedy
The Copywriter's Handbook, by Bob Bly
The Boron Letters, by Gary Halbert
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Getting Your Shit Together, by John Carlton
Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy
Another way you can go is to get a course. I got a fairly popular course for about $250, and in hindsight, it probably taught me enough to get started at some lower rates. Granted, I always want to be "the best" at whatever I do, so I sprung for a mentorship with an established copywriter to make sure I had my shit together before I went out looking for clients--PM me for names on either.
If you really want to spend some cash and get in gear, I hear that the All-Time Greats, like Carlton, Gary Bencivenga, Clayton Makepeace, and others, still take on mentees for fees in the high four to five figures for a weekend of intense mentoring. Not sure who all is still running their mentorship programs--I know Carlton is, but not sure about the others. I haven't been through one of these, but there are people who swear by them. Maybe I'll check them out when I'm looking to climb into their same stratosphere, but for now, I'm doing well enough to not warrant that kind of cash.
What Do I Need To Know?
"Basic Copywriting Concepts" could be its own datasheet. While you'll find that each kind of piece has its own "formulas," there are a few prime principles that a lot of wanna-be copywriters never really grasp, that they absolutely have to in order to be successful:
1) Benefits Over Features
A lot of companies just want to tout the "features" of their products: 250 hp, 50 locations in 15 cities, bigger, faster, newer, etc.
While this can work if the feature really kicks ass ("free booze" and "hot chicks will be there" come to mind), most of the time, you really have to spell out the benefit of having that feature. The benefit is what the prospect stands to actually gain by buying something, so for example:
250 hp (feature) = chicks turning their heads when you rev the engine (benefit)
50 locations in 15 cities (feature) = more convenient/saves time (benefits)
Faster (feature)= saves time (benefit)
You get the idea. Translate that feature into a benefit, and you help the prospect to realize what they stand to gain by purchasing the product, and just maybe elicit an emotional response in them.
That leads me to point number two:
2) AIDA (or "game in print")
The standard formula for most copywriting is:
Get their ATTENTION
Pique their INTEREST
Build their DESIRE
Get them to take ACTION
Sound familiar? It's EXACTLY the same as gaming a chick (OPEN, ATTRACT, COMFORT, CLOSE).
![[Image: mindblown.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/mindblown.gif)
Hell, if you write sales letters for "how to get more dates" products for women, it IS exactly the same thing. Not that I'd recommend that necessarily, but know that the possibility exists.
No, instead, you'll just be applying game principles to your target market, whatever it may be.
ATTENTION = Good headline--get them to click/open whatever
INTEREST = Relate to the prospect, get them to keep reading
DESIRE = Make them vividly imagine what life will be like with/without the product ("SELL THE DREAM!")
ACTION = CLOSE
There's a reason this works on so many levels, from cars to chicks--evolutionary psychology is a big part of good advertising. It's why any marketer worth his salt will just laugh at all of the "gender is a construct" b.s. going on right now--it's simply not true.
3) Know Your Target Market
This doesn't just mean "know your target demo," like "40-65 year old women in the market for a new car." It means research that demo--dig into their subculture. Get to know how they talk, what drives them, what scares them, and push those hot buttons as often as possible.
4) Use Descriptive Language/Elicit an Emotional Response
If you use game, you know how powerful emotionally-driven game can be--getting girls to imagine themselves in "good" places on dates, painting vivid pictures for them, etc. In fact, a lot of guys note that getting a negative emotional response from a chick when you're out can be almost as effective as a positive response.
The truth is that all people--not just chicks--like to feel something--ANYTHING to break through the veil of anesthesia that clouds most peoples' lives. Fortunately for good marketers, this fog grows thicker by the year, so peoples' appetites for something that connects with them continues to grow. If you can provide that connection reliably, you're ahead of even most pro marketers.
To get this emotional response, you need to paint vivid, descriptive pictures with your words. Don't just be like "Imagine it now: you're a millionaire, on perpetual vacation. Isn't that great?" Make them feel the soft sea breeze, the gentle swaying of the hammock beneath them. Let them taste the fruity drink in their hand and hear the waves on the beach.
In other words, if you're going to sell the dream, SELL THE FUCKING DREAM!
You can go over the top and get TOO specific, and disqualify yourself. This tends to occur when you sell a dream that isn't theirs. It's a problem a lot of guys have with their game and probably warrants its own post, but remember, you're talking to your audience, NOT a sea of "you"s.
How Do I Get Clients?
It's going to be tough--believe me, I ground things out for a few months before I got any bites. Sent out sales letters, called folks, posted ads on marketing sites, etc. Needless to say, you have to have a professional website (NOT a "professionally-done website"--just a website dedicated to your professional pursuits), and all of this advice is predicated on that. The 3 or 4 things that really seemed to open things up for me were:
1) Reaching out to old contacts in marketing
Offer to take them out to lunch, and tell them the truth--you're looking to start out as a copywriter, and want to know if they have any advice or leads. Usually this leads to a few more people, which leads to more contacts. "Uh, but I'm paying like $30-50 a lunch!" We're talking about work that can get you paid thousands, and you're bitching about THAT? Maybe you're not ready for the "Lifestyle" section of the forum quite yet...
This includes reaching out to everyone you know (even vaguely) on LinkedIn--you never know when an "acquaintance of an acquaintance" will be trolling LinkedIn for a copywriter.
2) Write a "self-sales letter" for your company
This seems like a no-brainer, right? Unless your skills are good enough to sell yourself, how will you ever sell other peoples' stuff? It can get tricky--like a lot of people, I tend to struggle with talking myself up until I know I can do something well.
But you have to put that shit to the side. Think of an angle. What can you bring to the table that other copywriters can't? What differentiates you? How can you brand yourself in a way that will make other people want to hire you?
Go through this, do all of the prep work for a sales letter (figure out your audience, their hopes, fears, your own features and benefits, etc.) and get to fucking work! You may need to write 3 or 4 different ones and test them all against each other--it's okay, testing is a part of effective copywriting (can get into more detail on that if people want me to).
Once you have this self-sales letter, you can put it up as your "ad" on various platforms online, and try to drive traffic to it, either through a paid ad or any number of other strategies (ask if you need more detail).
3) Get more testimonials
Testimonials are your best form of social proof as a copywriter. All of the greats have a long list of proven testimonials they can point to so they can charge their huge fees.
The problem is, if you're just starting out, you don't have any! There are 2 ways to get more testimonials as a newbie--you can do a few projects for peanuts (on elance, etc.), demonstrate results, and get them that way. Or you can contact people you've worked with formerly, put up comments or reviews off of stuff you've written, etc. Make sure you ask these people for specific testimonials of your writing/persuasive ability, work ethic, etc. By this point, you should know what you need to "sell the dream" to folks who need copywriting.
4) Start Content Marketing
Put a blog up on your website and start churning out articles on copywriting and marketing. Put up enough keywords so that when people search for "copywriter [your city]," your name is on the first page (you'd be surprised how many copywriters fail even this very basic marketing step). Build a "lead magnet"--a 10-12 page info product that you give out for free in exchange for their email address.
Slowly but surely, you'll start to see your email list grow. Here's a secret: once your email list is large enough, you can market valuable products to them directly! Note that I said "valuable"--"I did nothing but compile an email list and now spam them for cash!" doesn't cut it. I'm talking stuff that can ACTUALLY help people meet a need or solve a problem. If there's a big secret to marketing generally, that's it. Unfortunately, most people are too lazy to learn it.
Anyway, that's my very long-winded take on how to become a copywriter and make some good cash. Once you have a few clients, you'll be able to re-invest in your business, go to a few trade shows and hand out business cards, ask them for referrals, etc. It's getting those first few clients that really matters.
More Reading
I'd suggest the "Copywriting" section of the Warrior Forum. Be warned: the pros there can be brutal if you post something for a critique, or some half-assed post (kind of like around here![[Image: tard.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/new/tard.gif)
). Read through ALL of the stickies, and the posts linked under them. There's a wealth of free info for any aspiring copywriter who gives enough of a fuck to look through it all.
That's the other thing that really matters: give a fuck. Too many people half-ass becoming a copywriter and wonder why no one hires them. Don't be "that guy"--if your copy isn't selling, take the time and effort to get better. It's an important lesson for anything in life (and one that this forum celebrates), but especially something like copywriting, where you're measured on actual RESULTS instead of typical corporate "BS-or-quota-your-way-to-the-top" stuff. All that matters is if your copy moves units--it's appealing as one of the last true meritocracies left on the planet, presuming you stay out of agency stuff (again, could be its own thread).
I'll check back on this thread from time-to-time to answer questions and flesh out some parts of it that I just paid lip-service to, and always feel free to PM me with specific Qs. Thanks guys--like I said before, hopefully this can inspire a guy who would be well-served to pursue copywriting, or help a guy in need get back on his feet.
Vigo
A lot of guys have posted about how copywriting can provide a (very) good, location-independent income. I'm a pro copywriter by trade, and did a quick forum search for copywriting--good number of hits in other threads, but no dedicated copywriting datasheet. So I figured I might as well share some insights with you guys--hopefully this datasheet will inspire a couple guys to follow in my footsteps and pursue what can be a very lucrative career. Hope you enjoy...
What is Copywriting?
Think of copywriting as "persuasion in print." Every time you see an ad, product label, website, etc., the product creator is trying to persuade you to take some kind of action. Ultimately, in one way or another, this copy is usually geared toward making a sale somehow, either directly, or by giving the prospect "enough information" (wink, wink) to help them realize they NEED the product, or by getting your email address or contact information so that you can be put on a list to be sold to later. There is the odd case where some companies just want to "raise brand awareness," but a lot of time those people have very broad "sales funnels" (more on this later), and can afford HUGE international marketing campaigns. While it's kind of a
goal, those companies usually have tons of cash, and it's a pretty broad objective, so hey, who am I to refuse?Why Should I Become a Copywriter?
Because copywriting depends on the power of persuasion, I think a lot of game users and game-aware guys are perfectly suited for it--there's (sadly) not much difference between trying to get a girl to fuck you, and trying to get some fat fuck from Nebraska to shell out $97 on a "comprehensive system" to "get thin quick" in the form of a 80 page ebook.
Also, it pays damned well--while you may take a pay cut until you have some proven results, copywriters who do have proof of their selling ability can charge $3000-5000 a sales letter. The very best can clock in somewhere in the five figures per sales letter, plus royalties per item sold.
Keep in mind, to get to this level, you will have to demonstrate very high conversion rates for high-ticket products in very competitive fields--think the big three wants (health, sex, and money). But if you can get there, you can effectively work 20 hours per month and make mid-six figures before royalties. That's not bad...
Also, it helps if you're a good writer to begin with. Before I got into copywriting, I was a lawyer at a big(ish) firm, and wrote a lot of persuasive (but boring) shit. This shortened my learning curve significantly--if you can write error-free pieces relatively quickly, with good grammar, you'd be a great candidate to strike out on your own as a copywriter.
Why Shouldn't I Become a Copywriter?
If you can't write really well to begin with, you're going to fight an uphill battle. The Warrior Forum Copywriting Section is littered with non-native speakers that make posts like "I want writ good copies--is my sqeze page make benefit for customer?" Of course, they link to some awful squeeze page that has no chance.
Seriously, though, you need to have some basic foundation in:
(1) Writing, and
(2) Persuasion in some form,
and you should be able to learn copywriting.
Who Will Hire Me?
All sorts of companies, from huge multinationals to mom-and-pop businesses, to people with ebooks on Clickbank (notice all of those weird picture ads with sensational headlines that lead to sales letters at the bottoms of web pages? Those sales letters all need to be written by copywriters).
What Kinds of Stuff Will I Be Writing?
Everything from sales letters, to websites, to "white papers," to brochures, to emails, to ads. You'd be surprised at how bad even "big time" businessmen and lawyers are at the nuts-and-bolts of writing, let alone persuading others through the written word.
Now imagine how bad your run-of-the-mill internet marketer is at it.
Usually, most copywriters try to specialize in 1-3 different things, and do those really well, so they can charge more for them. I've found that I'm particularly good at sales letters, and enjoy writing them, so I'm trying to pivot to specialize in those. But I still take on other projects all the time--not only is it paying work, but it breaks up the monotony a little bit.
Keep in mind that if you like to hustle a bit, you can write pretty much whatever you want, and get paid a good amount for it.
How Much Can I Get Paid?
Like I said earlier, experienced copywriters can charge $3000-5000 for a sales letter, no questions asked. Keep in mind, this includes all of the background research, reading/using the product (if it's an info product), making a prep file, thinking about the angles, writing, revising, etc.
It can take a lot of time at the beginning, but over time, especially as you focus on a niche, you can streamline a lot of the prep work, and focus more on writing. As you get better results, your hourly rate skyrockets.
At the start, though, you'll be doing a lot of "hourly rate conversion." This consists of estimating how many hours a project will take, then extrapolating that out times your hourly rate. You may have to lowball a few projects when you're starting out, but I wouldn't recommend starting any lower than $30/hour, and generously allocate your time. Don't be afraid to ask a client how much they've budgeted for a project, either--you'd be surprised at how much some clients will pay for something relatively straightforward.
Once you're making $50/hour and above, you can make a very nice income working just 20 hours a week--at least enough to live on. That leaves more time to game chicks, work on other side hustles, create and promote your own products, etc. And with each project, you're effectively decreasing the "hours" portion of the equation (since you should always bill by the project whenever possible), which "makes" you more time over the long run.
How Do I Learn How to Do It?
There are a few ways you can learn to be a copywriter. The cheapest is probably self-study. Read a bunch of books on the topic, hand-copy sales letters, try making and selling your own products under pen names to prove your sales ability, etc.
Gary Halbert (big-time copywriter--R.I.P.) advocates this method to "learn how to write copy in 30 days or less." Keep in mind that this takes a lot of time out of those 30 days, and a lot of work. But some people have tried it and said it works, so who knows?
I did a good amount of self-study. The six or so books I'd recommend most when getting started are:
The Well-Fed Writer, by Peter Bowerman
The Ultimate Sales Letter, by Dan Kennedy
The Copywriter's Handbook, by Bob Bly
The Boron Letters, by Gary Halbert
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Getting Your Shit Together, by John Carlton
Ogilvy on Advertising, by David Ogilvy
Another way you can go is to get a course. I got a fairly popular course for about $250, and in hindsight, it probably taught me enough to get started at some lower rates. Granted, I always want to be "the best" at whatever I do, so I sprung for a mentorship with an established copywriter to make sure I had my shit together before I went out looking for clients--PM me for names on either.
If you really want to spend some cash and get in gear, I hear that the All-Time Greats, like Carlton, Gary Bencivenga, Clayton Makepeace, and others, still take on mentees for fees in the high four to five figures for a weekend of intense mentoring. Not sure who all is still running their mentorship programs--I know Carlton is, but not sure about the others. I haven't been through one of these, but there are people who swear by them. Maybe I'll check them out when I'm looking to climb into their same stratosphere, but for now, I'm doing well enough to not warrant that kind of cash.
What Do I Need To Know?
"Basic Copywriting Concepts" could be its own datasheet. While you'll find that each kind of piece has its own "formulas," there are a few prime principles that a lot of wanna-be copywriters never really grasp, that they absolutely have to in order to be successful:
1) Benefits Over Features
A lot of companies just want to tout the "features" of their products: 250 hp, 50 locations in 15 cities, bigger, faster, newer, etc.
While this can work if the feature really kicks ass ("free booze" and "hot chicks will be there" come to mind), most of the time, you really have to spell out the benefit of having that feature. The benefit is what the prospect stands to actually gain by buying something, so for example:
250 hp (feature) = chicks turning their heads when you rev the engine (benefit)
50 locations in 15 cities (feature) = more convenient/saves time (benefits)
Faster (feature)= saves time (benefit)
You get the idea. Translate that feature into a benefit, and you help the prospect to realize what they stand to gain by purchasing the product, and just maybe elicit an emotional response in them.
That leads me to point number two:
2) AIDA (or "game in print")
The standard formula for most copywriting is:
Get their ATTENTION
Pique their INTEREST
Build their DESIRE
Get them to take ACTION
Sound familiar? It's EXACTLY the same as gaming a chick (OPEN, ATTRACT, COMFORT, CLOSE).
Hell, if you write sales letters for "how to get more dates" products for women, it IS exactly the same thing. Not that I'd recommend that necessarily, but know that the possibility exists.
No, instead, you'll just be applying game principles to your target market, whatever it may be.
ATTENTION = Good headline--get them to click/open whatever
INTEREST = Relate to the prospect, get them to keep reading
DESIRE = Make them vividly imagine what life will be like with/without the product ("SELL THE DREAM!")
ACTION = CLOSE
There's a reason this works on so many levels, from cars to chicks--evolutionary psychology is a big part of good advertising. It's why any marketer worth his salt will just laugh at all of the "gender is a construct" b.s. going on right now--it's simply not true.
3) Know Your Target Market
This doesn't just mean "know your target demo," like "40-65 year old women in the market for a new car." It means research that demo--dig into their subculture. Get to know how they talk, what drives them, what scares them, and push those hot buttons as often as possible.
4) Use Descriptive Language/Elicit an Emotional Response
If you use game, you know how powerful emotionally-driven game can be--getting girls to imagine themselves in "good" places on dates, painting vivid pictures for them, etc. In fact, a lot of guys note that getting a negative emotional response from a chick when you're out can be almost as effective as a positive response.
The truth is that all people--not just chicks--like to feel something--ANYTHING to break through the veil of anesthesia that clouds most peoples' lives. Fortunately for good marketers, this fog grows thicker by the year, so peoples' appetites for something that connects with them continues to grow. If you can provide that connection reliably, you're ahead of even most pro marketers.
To get this emotional response, you need to paint vivid, descriptive pictures with your words. Don't just be like "Imagine it now: you're a millionaire, on perpetual vacation. Isn't that great?" Make them feel the soft sea breeze, the gentle swaying of the hammock beneath them. Let them taste the fruity drink in their hand and hear the waves on the beach.
In other words, if you're going to sell the dream, SELL THE FUCKING DREAM!
You can go over the top and get TOO specific, and disqualify yourself. This tends to occur when you sell a dream that isn't theirs. It's a problem a lot of guys have with their game and probably warrants its own post, but remember, you're talking to your audience, NOT a sea of "you"s.
How Do I Get Clients?
It's going to be tough--believe me, I ground things out for a few months before I got any bites. Sent out sales letters, called folks, posted ads on marketing sites, etc. Needless to say, you have to have a professional website (NOT a "professionally-done website"--just a website dedicated to your professional pursuits), and all of this advice is predicated on that. The 3 or 4 things that really seemed to open things up for me were:
1) Reaching out to old contacts in marketing
Offer to take them out to lunch, and tell them the truth--you're looking to start out as a copywriter, and want to know if they have any advice or leads. Usually this leads to a few more people, which leads to more contacts. "Uh, but I'm paying like $30-50 a lunch!" We're talking about work that can get you paid thousands, and you're bitching about THAT? Maybe you're not ready for the "Lifestyle" section of the forum quite yet...
This includes reaching out to everyone you know (even vaguely) on LinkedIn--you never know when an "acquaintance of an acquaintance" will be trolling LinkedIn for a copywriter.
2) Write a "self-sales letter" for your company
This seems like a no-brainer, right? Unless your skills are good enough to sell yourself, how will you ever sell other peoples' stuff? It can get tricky--like a lot of people, I tend to struggle with talking myself up until I know I can do something well.
But you have to put that shit to the side. Think of an angle. What can you bring to the table that other copywriters can't? What differentiates you? How can you brand yourself in a way that will make other people want to hire you?
Go through this, do all of the prep work for a sales letter (figure out your audience, their hopes, fears, your own features and benefits, etc.) and get to fucking work! You may need to write 3 or 4 different ones and test them all against each other--it's okay, testing is a part of effective copywriting (can get into more detail on that if people want me to).
Once you have this self-sales letter, you can put it up as your "ad" on various platforms online, and try to drive traffic to it, either through a paid ad or any number of other strategies (ask if you need more detail).
3) Get more testimonials
Testimonials are your best form of social proof as a copywriter. All of the greats have a long list of proven testimonials they can point to so they can charge their huge fees.
The problem is, if you're just starting out, you don't have any! There are 2 ways to get more testimonials as a newbie--you can do a few projects for peanuts (on elance, etc.), demonstrate results, and get them that way. Or you can contact people you've worked with formerly, put up comments or reviews off of stuff you've written, etc. Make sure you ask these people for specific testimonials of your writing/persuasive ability, work ethic, etc. By this point, you should know what you need to "sell the dream" to folks who need copywriting.
4) Start Content Marketing
Put a blog up on your website and start churning out articles on copywriting and marketing. Put up enough keywords so that when people search for "copywriter [your city]," your name is on the first page (you'd be surprised how many copywriters fail even this very basic marketing step). Build a "lead magnet"--a 10-12 page info product that you give out for free in exchange for their email address.
Slowly but surely, you'll start to see your email list grow. Here's a secret: once your email list is large enough, you can market valuable products to them directly! Note that I said "valuable"--"I did nothing but compile an email list and now spam them for cash!" doesn't cut it. I'm talking stuff that can ACTUALLY help people meet a need or solve a problem. If there's a big secret to marketing generally, that's it. Unfortunately, most people are too lazy to learn it.
Anyway, that's my very long-winded take on how to become a copywriter and make some good cash. Once you have a few clients, you'll be able to re-invest in your business, go to a few trade shows and hand out business cards, ask them for referrals, etc. It's getting those first few clients that really matters.
More Reading
I'd suggest the "Copywriting" section of the Warrior Forum. Be warned: the pros there can be brutal if you post something for a critique, or some half-assed post (kind of like around here
). Read through ALL of the stickies, and the posts linked under them. There's a wealth of free info for any aspiring copywriter who gives enough of a fuck to look through it all.That's the other thing that really matters: give a fuck. Too many people half-ass becoming a copywriter and wonder why no one hires them. Don't be "that guy"--if your copy isn't selling, take the time and effort to get better. It's an important lesson for anything in life (and one that this forum celebrates), but especially something like copywriting, where you're measured on actual RESULTS instead of typical corporate "BS-or-quota-your-way-to-the-top" stuff. All that matters is if your copy moves units--it's appealing as one of the last true meritocracies left on the planet, presuming you stay out of agency stuff (again, could be its own thread).
I'll check back on this thread from time-to-time to answer questions and flesh out some parts of it that I just paid lip-service to, and always feel free to PM me with specific Qs. Thanks guys--like I said before, hopefully this can inspire a guy who would be well-served to pursue copywriting, or help a guy in need get back on his feet.
Vigo